Science and faith slug it out again

Judging from the fuss whenever science opens up new possibilities for human foetal and embryonic research, voters could be forgiven for not realising such work has been done for nearly a century. It featured in the polio vaccine breakthrough in 1954. What next? Parkinson's Disease? MS?

But MPs are gearing up for another battle in the shape of a bill that mingles a host of distinct and complex issues, practical, ethical and religious. That formidable alliance, the Catholic church and the Daily Mail, is on the warpath, seeking to use the human fertilisation and embryology bill to curb abortion rights, from 24 to 20 weeks.

The less grabby issues in headline terms range from parental rights arising from same-sex marriage (social), to rules on donor consent on the use of embryo material (legal) and pressure (scientific) to create "inter-species" embryos such as human DNA injected into empty cows' eggs to create a hybrid, albeit one which is 99.9% human in genetic terms.

Scientists have demanded this right since 2006, and the regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, gave the go-ahead in January, to the annoyance of politicians who believe voters want parliament to decide such matters. It is in the bill.

The anti-abortion lobby has highlighted the dilemma of some Catholic cabinet ministers - Ruth Kelly, Paul Murphy and Des Browne - and MPs who are being allowed to abstain on the abortion amendment, despite pressure to vote no. In fact, thoughtful Labour MPs such as geneticist Dr Ian Gibson worry that the real threat to a progressive consensus that respects public opinion comes from impatient scientists making dubious claims that frighten middle-ground opinion into the reactionary camp. An example surfaced at the weekend with pressure to relax the ban on using artificial gametes - sperm or eggs - in creating a human pregnancy, the therapeutic, as distinct from research, process. Yet the research is still at an early stage: the mice still die. Dolly the sheep was a one in 264 shot.

The bill, which updates the 1990 act in the light of evolving science and public attitudes, has already had a little-reported passage through the Lords, where science and faith slugged it out more gently than ministers led by Lord Darzi had feared.

Complaints were heard and Lord Darzi sent out a conciliatory letter, but few changes were made. When the Lib Dem Catholic peer David Alton moved to curb hybrid embryo research, he was defeated by 268 to 96. Only the Tories narrowly backed him, by 52 to 42. The Lib Dems were 42 to nine against, Labour 136 to eight against, and crossbenchers 45 to 24 against. Even the bishops backed science two to one.

Government whips in the Commons think open-minded MPs are yet to engage on the issues. No date for the bill's start has been fixed, but they expect it to be difficult. Strictly speaking, abortion has nothing to do with it. Not that it will stop anyone.